Digital Commons Network^™

My Community, Their Community Our Community: "Musings" On Development, Grace Leonard

VA Engage Journal

This reflection explores the collision of anthropology and civic engagement, a combination that has come to define my senior research. My fieldwork at educational NGOs in Northern Richmond and Northern Ghana caused me to question the local relevancy of NGO management strategies. How can white, middle class teachers appropriately improve educational outcomes for low-income black students in Richmond? Is compulsory education appropriate training for Ghanaian farmers? Academic theories criticize “development” for furthering power against the oppressed, while the qualitative work of NGOs is quantified to fit the needs of grant writers. I find policy can never prescribe perfectly. In order …

Toward Affective Language Arts Teaching: The Utilization Of Culturally Relevant Literature On Urban African American High School Students, Barbara Benita Craft

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

TOWARD AFFECTIVE LANGUAGE ARTS TEACHING:

THE UTILIZATION OF CULTURALLY RELEVANT LITERATURE ON URBAN AFRICAN AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

by

BARBARA-BENITA CRAFT

August 2012

Advisor: Dr. Monte Piliawsky

Major: Curriculum and Instruction

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Data collected and analyzed from English Language Arts teachers in urban, metro-city, and suburban school districts related to the use and extent of use of culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1994a), culturally relevant literature (Ladson-Billings, 1994a), activities and strategies from African American familial culture (Hale-Benson, 1986), and cultural modeling (Lee, 1993), showed similarities and differences in the pedagogical practices and methodologies among the three teachers …

Libraries And General Education: New Strategies To Enhance Freshman Orientation, Faculty Collaboration, And Curriculum Development, Carl R. Andrews

Publications and Research

My research will attempt to re-evaluate the academic library's role in supporting a general education program. The emphasis will focus on student centeredness, faculty collaboration, outreach and curriculum support. In the short time that I have worked in academic libraries I have learned that quality customer service and reference desk work is far from the list of priorities in some settings. Coming from the public library I found this to be unacceptable. We are service providers and the way in which we communicate with students and faculty is important. As professionals we should do more in the way of making …

Infusing Disability Sport Into The Sport Management Curriculum, Deborah R. Shapiro, Brenda G. Pitts, Mary A. Hums, Jimmy Calloway

Faculty Articles

Disability sport is growing around the world with momentum and is described as a "movement" (Bailey, 2008; DePauw & Gavron, 2005). While there are more similarities than differences with sport management for able-bodied athletes and those with disabilities, there are additional needs and considerations for persons with disabilities (DePauw & Gavron, 2005). The noticeable visibility of individuals with disabilities in society, including sport, raises concerns about the degree to which sport management academic programs have modified their curricula to ensure that individuals working in the sport management field are prepared to deal with the uniqueness of disability sport. This paper …

Missing And Shrinking Voices: A Critical Analysis Of Florida's Textbook Adoption Policy, Randria Williams, Vonzell Agosto

Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter is a critical analysis of the Florida textbook adoption policy and its recent changes. A critical multicultural and critical race theory lens is taken in the analysis of documents for how the representation of ethnic and racial minority groups is reduced and might be enlarged through alternative policy making processes.

An Examination Of The Perceptions And Motivations Of African American High School Students Regarding Performance Character Qualities For Future Success, Robin W. Stewart

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to understand student perceptions and motivations regarding performance character qualities (i.e., assertiveness, perseverance, resilience, and self-control) at an urban high school. In examining these relationships, students' perceptions and motivations towards performance character qualities were identified. The study is important because students' poor academic performance, low test scores, low high school graduation rates, and employers reporting that high school graduates do not possess the necessary performance qualities needed to excel on the job indicate that urban high school students may lack the proper orientation toward performance qualities. Research is needed to understand types of skills …

Supporting International Faculty, Cutting Li, Sterling K. Wall, Marty Loy, Kelly Schoonaert

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

No abstract provided.

Please Read While Texting And Driving, C. Edward Watson, Krista P. Terry, Peter E. Doolittle

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

No abstract provided.

Tweeting #Podhbcu, Mary C. Wright, Rachel K. Niemer, Derek Bruff, Katherine Valle

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

No abstract provided.

Can Adults Become Fluent In Newly Learned Scripts?, Helen Abadzi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

Adults learning new scripts have difficulty becoming automatic readers. They typically read haltingly, understand little of what they read, and may forget letter values. This article presents the hypothesis that halting reading among adult neoliterates is due to low-level perceptual functions in the brain that have a sensitive period. These may be related to feature integration; whether illiterate or educated, adults learning a new script may be perceiving letters as connected segments rather than unbreakable units. The time needed to resolve ambiguities and determine how the segments are combined may delay identification and result in letter-by-letter reading. This phenomenon could …

Research And Transfer: A Teaching Project, Catherine Stern, Cecilia Macheski

Publications and Research

This paper reports on a project that grew out of observations and conversations undertaken by two faculty members at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY interested in exploring the connection between research skills and transfer knowledge. Stern and Macheski posited that if students were able to connect research acquisition skills to the transfer application process, each skill would enhance the other. The outcomes from this small cohort, while not conclusive, lead the authors to be optimistic that their approach improves both understanding of authentic research and its connection to personal goals. National conversations in recent years about the changing role of community colleges …

Bryant University Undergraduate Course Catalog 2012 - 2013

Bryant University Undergraduate Course Catalog

No abstract provided.

Writing Yogis: Breathing Our Way To Mindfulness And Balance In Embodied Writing Pedagogy, Christy I. Wenger

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Breathing exercises constitute a method for helping students to attain a state of mindfulness in their writing—and their lives.

Connecting, Helen Walker, Carl Vandermeulen, Louise Morgan, Jill Moyer Sunday, Tony Mayo

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Connecting

Helen Walker - Trust, and Gaps

Carl Vandermeulen - Proverbs for Poetry Class

Louise Morgan - TJ, Whom I Like Very Much

Jill Moyer Sunday - History Lesson 101

Tony Mayo - Shawn

Outside The Box And Onto A Dusty Trail, Richard Leo Enos

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Archeological exploration has redefined research since this scholar became the Indiana Jones of rhetorical studies.

Book Reviews, Judy Halden-Sullivan, Lauren Dipaula, William Archibald, Noam Scheindlin, Martin Cockroft

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Book Reviews

Judy Halden-Sullivan - Paradigm Shifts

Lauren DiPaula - Price, Margaret. Mad At School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011.

William Archibald - Thomas, Douglas and John Seely Brown. A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change. Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2011.

Noam Scheindlin - Vandermeulen, Carl. Negotiating the Personal in Creative Writing. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2011.

Martin Cockroft - Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. and Bruce Novak. Teaching Literacy for Love and Wisdom: Being the Book and Being the Change. NY: Teachers College Press, 2011.

Reflections On Accidental Testimonies And Spectacular Witnesses, Lavinia Hirsu

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

When unplanned-for testimonies occur in class, how do instructors turn a disruptive moment into a teachable one?

Gatekept: Inviting Creative Community Literacy, Shelly Sanders, B. Cole Bennett

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Creative writing becomes a vehicle for community outreach in a Writing Center setting, bringing together town and gown.

The Communally Focused Writing Center, Tom Truesdell

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Can writing center administrators prepare student tutors to help transform faculty-student relations? Should they?

Renovating My Academic Administration, Elizabeth Vander Lei

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

A department chair dons a hard hat and begins to see her position through the lens of spiritual rebirth and figured worlds—as a portrait of Calvin looks on.

The Rainbow Connection: Theorizing The Efficacy Of Private Texts, Liz Rohan

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Texts written privately often find new contexts, new uses, if writers become mindful of Bakhtin’s notion of “great time.”

Jaepl, Vol. 18, Winter 2012-2013, Joonna Smitherman Trapp, Brad Peters

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Essays

Douglas Hesse - Writing and Time, Time and the Essay

Liz Rohan - The Rainbow Connection: Theorizing the Efficacy of Private Texts

Christy I. Wenger - Writing Yogis: Breathing Our Way to Mindfulness and Balance in Embodied Writing Pedagogy

Lavinia Hirsu - Reflections on Accidental Testimonies and Spectacular Witnesses

Heather Trahan - Queers, Cupid's Arrow, and Contradictions in the Classroom: An Activity Theory Analysis

Shelly Sanders & B. Cole Bennett - Gatekept: Inviting Creative Community Literacy

Out of the Box

Richard Leo Enos - Outside the Box and onto a Dusty Trail

SPECIAL SECTION: Administration, Ethics, and Spirituality

Paul …

Queers, Cupid’S Arrow, And Contradictions In The Classroom: An Activity Theory Analysis, Heather Trahan

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

“Third generation” activity theory can help instructors support and also deal with gay romance in the classroom.

Even Administrators Have Souls, Paul Puccio

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Faculty have a critical role to play if they want administrators to be more than unilateral decision-makers.

Online Remedial Writing Classes: A Sense Of Presence, Pedagogy, And Digital Divide, Barbara Lorraine Stoutamore

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Remedial math and writing courses have become commonplace on two and four year college campuses. As many as 42 percent of incoming freshman enroll in some type of remedial class whether it be reading, writing, or math (Brock, 2010). More and more students are entering these institutions underprepared for college level work and must take remedial courses to increase their skills to college equivalency. Face to Face (FtF) courses have been developed to meet the needs of remedial students, but recently online courses have begun to be offered as well. Research shows that students who take online courses are less …

Intercultural Virtual Communications: A New Course Proposal, Haléakala

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Technological advancements have introduced computer mediated communication (CMC) which has come to permeate our lives from the way we work, to the way we learn, to the way we teach. Current studies of CMC tend to ignore the importance of the intercultural factors that affect it. Additionally, CMC studies focus on the technology aspects of communication instead of focusing on the human aspect of CMC. This project puts together CMC research, community need, and business acumen, relates it to human theories of communication, and creates a usable course for teaching intercultural virtual communications in the undergraduate classroom. The findings from …

Study Guide For United In Anger: A History Of Act Up, Matt Brim

Open Educational Resources

The United in Anger Study Guide facilitates classroom and activist engagement with Jim Hubbard’s 2012 documentary, United in Anger: A History of ACT UP. The Study Guide contains discussion sections, projects and exercises, and resources for further research about the activism of the New York chapter of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). The Study Guide is a free, interactive, multimedia resource for understanding the legacy of ACT UP, the film’s role in preserving that legacy, and its meaning for viewers' lives.

Investigating Young Children's Music-Making Behavior: A Developmental Theory, Paul G. Morehouse

CGU Theses & Dissertations

We have many developmental theories contributing to our understanding of children as they meander steadfastly toward maturation. Yet, none have reported on how young children interpret the qualitative meaning and importance of their own music-making experiences. Music created by average, not prodigious, young children is perceived by adults as “play” music rather than “real” music. But do young children take the same view as adults? When Piaget speaks of the young child’s qualitatively unique view and experience of the world (Ginsberg & Opper, 1988), can we assume that his statement encompasses young children’s predispositions related to music-making?

Music is understood …

Telling The Truth As Wpa, Beth Daniell

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

After reflecting upon students, a writing program administrator looks hard at two other challenging situations and questions the truthfulness of her approaches to each.

Back Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.